The Little Book of Being Practices and Guidance for Uncovering Your Natural Awareness

221 Pages·2019·1 MB·English

by  Diana Winston

For Mira, the one and only
CONTENTS
Introduction
How to Use the Glimpse Practices
PART I FOUNDATIONS: UNDERSTANDING NATURAL
AWARENESS
1 What Is Natural Awareness?
2 What Makes Natural Awareness Natural?
Glimpse Practice: Recollection
3 Why Is Natural Awareness So Hard to Find?
4 What’s In It for Me?
5 Um, What Is Meditation?
Glimpse Practice: Ask Yourself . . .
6 But What About Regular Old Mindfulness Practice?
7 The Spectrum of Awareness Practices
8 Did I Say, “No Hierarchy”?
Glimpse Practice: Reminder Phrases
9 The Science of Natural Awareness Practice
10 Natural Awareness in Light of Religion
11 The Multifaceted Diamond
Glimpse Practice: A Quote
12 Developing a Natural Awareness Practice
13 Living from Natural Awareness
14 A Caveat: Don’t Be a Bliss Ninny
Glimpse Practice: Bank of a River Analogy
PART II TECHNIQUES: MEDITATING WITH NATURAL
AWARENESS
15 Meditation Practice Basics
16 Clarifying and Setting Intentions
Glimpse Practice: Ask Yourself . . .
17 Classical Mindfulness Meditation: Focused Awareness
Practice
18 Classical Mindfulness Meditation Expanded: Flexible
Awareness Practice
Glimpse Practice: Back-Body Awareness
19 Classical Mindfulness Meditation Expanded Further: Fully
Flexible Awareness Practice
20 Shift into Natural Awareness
Glimpse Practice: Notice the Noticer
21 Natural Awareness Meditation: Marinate and Refresh
22 Structuring Your Natural Awareness Practice Session
23 Eyes Wide Open
Glimpse Practice: Open Your Eyes
24 Mix It Up
25 Trust the Healing
Glimpse Practice: A Mirror Analogy
26 Difficult Emotions: RAIN
27 Difficult Emotions: Salt in the Lake
Glimpse Practice: Listening Expansion
28 What about Thoughts?
29 Concentration and Natural Awareness
30 Anxiety: When There’s No Ground
Glimpse Practice: 360-Degree Body Expansion
31 Spacing Out: Who Am I Kidding?
32 Busy Mind
Glimpse Practice: The Space Between Things
33 Sleepy Time
34 Subtle Sleepiness or Dullness
Glimpse Practice: Expand Everything
35 Embodiment: Don’t Get Caught in the Head
36 Clinging to Natural Awareness
37 Drop the Banana
Glimpse Practice: Ask Yourself . . .
38 Caught or Free?
39 Hooked? Melt Back
Glimpse Practice: Melting Back Like Chocolate
40 Doubt: Is This It?
41 Clouds and the Sky
Glimpse Practice: Mind Like the Sky Analogy
42 Self-Judgment: The Tyranny of Doing It Right
43 Inner Goodness
Glimpse Practice: Ask Yourself . . .
44 How Compassion Fits In
45 Intend Compassion
Glimpse Practice: Heart Awareness
46 Retreats
47 Don’t Do It Alone
48 Find Two Teachers
Glimpse Practice: A Quote
PART III EMBODIMENT: LIVING NATURAL
AWARENESS
49 Formal and Informal Practice
50 Do Nothing: There Goes the Barge
51 Hang Out with Children
Glimpse Practice: Fake It till It’s Real
52 Find the Flow in Sports or Art
53 Tap into Nature
54 Practice with Your Pets
Glimpse Practice: Invoke It
55 Extend the Whispers
56 Bring Glimpse Practices into Daily Life
57 Give Yourself Practical Reminders
Glimpse Practice: I’m Reminding You Right Now
58 Postmeditation
59 Waiting? Default to Awareness
60 Take a Neighborhood Walk
Glimpse Practice: Ask Yourself . . .
61 Shift (into Natural Awareness) While Driving
62 Wash Your Dishes with Natural Awareness
63 What to Do When You’re Not Aware
Glimpse Practice: What’s Here Instead?
64 Practice While You Listen
65 Practice in Computer Hell
66 An Ethical Life
Glimpse Practice: An Ocean Analogy
67 Something Changes Inside
68 What Will You Let Go Of?
69 And It’s Okay
Glimpse Practice: A Quote
70 I Can Handle It!
71 Finding a New Address
72 You Can Live from Natural Awareness
Glimpse Practice: Ask Yourself . . .
AFTERWORD Evolutionary Imperative
Notes
APPENDIX Guided Meditation on the Spectrum of Awareness Practices
About the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center
Acknowledgments
About the Author
INTRODUCTION
When I was fourteen years old, I spent a summer by the beach as a mother’s
helper. It was exhausting work, chasing around after a two-year-old and
entertaining a six-year-old and keeping the two of them from clobbering each
other. I was up to the task, but I didn’t often get a lot of downtime.
I remember one night escaping into the field in front of the beach cottage,
lying down on a blanket, and looking up at the vast, star-strewn night sky. I let
myself fully relax. Without any forewarning, I started to experience a
combination of awe and love. In a wave that came over me, I had a sense of
being both fully inside my body and as spacious as the sky.
I didn’t quite know what to make of this startling experience. I felt love,
basically—pure, unconditional love. My mind and body seemed expansive,
bright, joyful, and serene—all at the same time. “Wow,” I said to myself. “I
think I love everyone and everything.”
So I tested myself. Who do I hate? I came up with my friend’s older brother
—I’ll call him Rex—who used to torment his sister and me whenever I visited. I
definitely hate Rex, I thought. But in that moment, I couldn’t hate him. In that
moment, I felt only a sense of love, even for Rex.
I lay there for some time—I couldn’t tell you how long—before ultimately
getting sleepy and going to bed.
In teaching countless students, I have discovered that many people have had
experiences like mine. Frequently, people remember a time in childhood—often
when they were in nature, but not always—when they felt a deep relaxation,
peace, connection, love, joy, or ease. Or they talk about flow-like states of
absorption spontaneously arising as they are participating in sports, creative
activities, or intimacy with another person. My assumption when I hear these
stories is that the ability to connect with a sense of just being is part of what it
means to be human. This quality of being is available to us at any time and has